At least twelve people were killed and dozens injured in the early hours of Sunday, 16 August, when a tourist bus travelling from Serbia to Poland veered off a major highway and overturned into a roadside ditch near the eastern Hungarian town of Mezőkövesd.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar expressed his deepest sympathies to the bereaved families in a statement released on Sunday morning, extending his gratitude to emergency services for their swift intervention at the scene.
According to the national news agency MTI, the Polish-registered vehicle was carrying 57 passengers and two drivers along the M3 motorway towards Nyíregyháza when it left the carriageway. Emergency crews arrived to find the red long-distance coach resting on its side in a deep embankment, its windows shattered and personal luggage scattered across the crash site.
Data from the National Directorate General for Disaster Management confirmed that eleven passengers died at the scene, with a twelfth victim later passing away in hospital. The national ambulance service reported that 37 other individuals sustained injuries, with several passengers having to be cut free from the wreckage by firefighters using specialized equipment.
A preliminary investigation published on the official police portal indicates that the coach drifted off a straight stretch of the motorway, leading officers to suspect that the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Law enforcement personnel have formally taken the driver into custody as part of the ongoing inquiry.
In Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that consular officials are coordinating closely with Hungarian authorities, promising further verified updates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Polish President Karol Nawrocki also released a statement describing the event as a tragic loss of life and offering his condolences.
The crash represents Hungary’s worst road disaster in over twenty years. The nation last experienced a collision of this magnitude in 2003, when a train struck a German tourist bus near Siófok, claiming 33 lives.
